EGYPT · THE NILE & THE RED SEA
Old as the pyramids, bright as the Red Sea.
Giza and the Sphinx, the painted tombs at Luxor, Abu Simbel and the Nile cruises. Then the Red Sea reefs off Hurghada and Sharm, desert safaris and balloons at first light.
Only in Egypt
Three wonders that exist nowhere else.
Reefs and desert quads you can find around the world. The Great Pyramid, the painted royal tombs and the colossi of Abu Simbel belong to Egypt alone.
The last ancient wonder
The Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramid has stood on the Giza plateau for some 4,500 years, the only one of the seven ancient wonders still standing. Three pyramids, the smaller queens’ tombs and the Sphinx keeping watch over the desert edge, all of it half an hour from downtown Cairo.
- 1 Cairo: Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride
- 2 From Hurghada: Cairo and Giza Highlights Full-Day Tour
- 3 From Cairo: Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Saqqara & Memphis Tour
Under the west bank
The Valley of the Kings
Across the Nile from Luxor, pharaohs cut their tombs deep into a dry desert valley for three thousand years. More than sixty have been found, their ceilings and walls still bright with painted gods. Tutankhamun’s was the one that came out almost untouched.
- 1 Hurghada: Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
- 2 Luxor Day Trip from Hurghada Small Group & Tutankhamun Tomb
- 3 Luxor: Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple Day Tour
Moved to save it
Abu Simbel
Ramesses II had four sixty-foot statues of himself carved straight out of a sandstone cliff near the Sudanese border. When Lake Nasser threatened to drown them in the 1960s, the whole temple was cut into blocks and lifted to higher ground. Twice a year the dawn sun still reaches the inner sanctuary.
- 1 From Aswan: Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel Pickup
- 2 Luxor: Abu Simbel Temple Private Guided Day Trip with Lunch
- 3 From Aswan: Abu Simbel Day Tour with Private Guide and Car
Start with the standout
The single most-booked day in Egypt.
More travellers build their trip around this one than anything else on the site.
The classics
Egypt's Most Popular Day Trips
Giza and the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings, Orange Bay and Abu Simbel. The days most people come to Egypt for.
Where to begin
The days an Egypt trip is built around.
The pyramids, the royal tombs, the Nile cruises, the Red Sea reefs, the balloons at dawn and the desert nights. The handful of experiences most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big one
How to see the Pyramids.
They sit right on the edge of the city, so the question is not whether but how. Three ways onto the Giza plateau, depending on the time you have and the crowds you want to dodge.
The river
Five thousand years on one river.
The Nile is the spine of the whole country, and the slow way to see it is from the water. Feluccas leaning into the wind at Aswan, dinner cruises lit up against the Cairo skyline, and the multi-day boats that drift between Luxor and Aswan, tying up at Kom Ombo and Edfu along the way.
Read the guide: the best Nile cruises →Hurghada & Sharm
A coast built on coral.
An hour off the ancient trail, the Red Sea turns the whole trip turquoise. Orange Bay’s white sand and glass-clear shallows, the reefs around Giftun Island, the wall dives at Ras Mohamed, and the dolphin houses where pods come in to play. Snorkel, dive, or just ride a yacht out for the day.
See the Red Sea trips →Luxor, before dawn
Float over the temples at first light.
Lift off the west bank as the sun clears the eastern hills and the whole Theban plain opens up beneath you. The Nile a silver ribbon, Hatshepsut’s terraces and the Colossi of Memnon below, the desert valleys where the pharaohs were buried turning gold. The half-hour everyone remembers most.
Hot air balloon rides →Cairo
Tutankhamun's gold, up close.
Two museums hold the loot the tombs gave up: the old red-brick Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, and the vast new Grand Egyptian Museum out by the pyramids, where Tutankhamun’s full treasure and the royal mummies now sit. Guided tours cut straight to the pieces worth crossing the world for.
- 1 Cairo: Grand Egyptian Museum, Pyramids, Sphinx Tour & Lunch
- 2 Hurghada: Cairo Pyramids, Sphinx & Egyptian Museum Day Trip
- 3 Cairo: Egyptian Museum, Citadel, and Old Cairo Guided Tour
Three Egypts
One country, three worlds.
The ancient Nile, the Red Sea coast and the open desert. Most trips touch all three, and they feel like three different countries strung along the same map.
Ancient Egypt
Temples, tombs and colossi.The pyramids at Giza, the painted tombs of the west bank, Karnak after dark and Abu Simbel at the country’s southern edge.
The Red Sea
Coral, islands and clear water.Reefs off Hurghada and Sharm, the white sand of Orange Bay, dolphin houses and the dive sites of Ras Mohamed.
The Desert
Dunes, camels and Bedouin fires.Quad bikes across the Eastern Desert, camel trains at sunset, stargazing and a BBQ under canvas in a Bedouin camp.
The Eastern Desert
Quad bikes, camels and a Bedouin fire.
Behind the resort strip the dunes run on for miles. Roar across them on a quad as the sun drops, swap onto a camel for the last stretch, and pull into a Bedouin camp for grilled dinner under a sky thick with stars. The desert goes completely silent once the engines cut.
See all 37 desert safaris →By place
Egypt, from the Nile to the coast.
Cairo for the pyramids and the museum. Luxor for the royal tombs and the temples. Aswan for the calm Nile and Abu Simbel. Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh for the reef. Giza for the Sphinx itself.
By experience
Pick how to spend the day.
Stand under the pyramids. Sail the Nile. Snorkel the reef. Quad the dunes, climb into a balloon at dawn, or walk the painted tombs of the west bank.
Plan it
The classic Egypt route.
First time in Egypt? This is the line most travellers follow, north to south down the Nile, with the Red Sea an easy add-on at the end.
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